


Stardust

by Coalmine301



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [5]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Insomnia, sad boy hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29273079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coalmine301/pseuds/Coalmine301
Summary: Sometimes it's hard to sleep.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138955
Kudos: 23





	Stardust

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Febuwhump prompt "Insomnia"

Ever since he was small, Anakin found himself fascinated by the stars. They hovered overhead, gazing down at him like burning eyes. And yet he felt no fear. Only curiosity.

What did the stars look like? Did anyone live on them? What lay beyond the stars? Was it possible to find out?

And so it became a source of comfort for him. Even after a long day of tinkering and repairing and podracing the stars hovered above. As if they had been waiting for him.

Even after he had been freed, Anakin still found comfort in the stars. The constellations on coruscant were unfamiliar and a bit tricky to find, but no less welcoming. Many a time he would sit by the window after a long mission, simply watching the stars.

And yet here, now, gazing up at those same stars, Anakin felt no comfort.

They stared blankly, coldly. Detached.

They didn’t know what happened on that accursed mudball of a planet.

“Can’t sleep?”

Anakin jumped a little at the voice, whipping around to face the source. 

Obi-wan stared back with tired blue eyes. New stress lines carved themselves into his friend’s face. Those once warm, bright eyes were now almost sunken in, accompanied by dark bags. In short he looked awful, the war clearly haven taken a toll on him.

Distantly Anakin figured that he must look just as terrible. 

Abruptly Anakin realized Obi-wan had asked him a question.

The taller man shook his head. “No,” he admitted. “Every time I close my eyes, I just see…”

“Their faces?” Obi-wan finished for him.

“Yeah.”

They had lost a lot of good men today. The attack had been rushed, someone had given the command to attack a breath too early. And they had suffered for it.

A mistake, a simple seemingly innocuous mistake. The kind anyone could make. That’s all it was. And yet men had paid for it with their lives.

Such was the nature of war.

“What happens when we die?”

“We become one with the Force,” Obi-wan replied simply. It was a fact they had all been taught since the creche. 

“I know that,” Anakin replied dismissively. “But what does that mean? Do we, what? Become ghosts? Do we just poof out of existence? Is there an afterlife or is this it? Is this all we get?”

Because Obi-wan was the Master while he was only a Knight. If anyone had the answers he was looking for, it had to be Obi-wan… right?

The redhead frowned a little, brows knitting together in consideration. “I- I don’t know, Anakin,” he admitted. “Perhaps there truly is nothing after this. Your heart stops and that’s it.”

The blonde gave a huff. It sounded just a bit too final to him.

On Tatooine, his mother had told tales of souls becoming stardust in death. How that way the people they had once been lived on, in a way. Forever preserved in the moon’s beautiful silver.

Every time he looked at the stars he knew he was never alone.

“We should be getting to bed,” Anakin murmured half to himself.

“Yes,” Obi-wan agreed.

Yet neither moved.

It felt wrong settling down in somewhat comfy beds when the past few weeks were spent sleeping on barley cushioned ground. The roar of airspeeders outside the window was a soft whisper compared to the thunder of mortar shells.

Even here, safe on Coruscant, the war kept them awake. 

Anakin had to ask. “Do you ever get used to it?”

“To what?”

“The war, y’know? All this fighting and killing and dying. Just constantly running and swinging as people all around you keep dying.”

“I don’t think anyone ever really gets used to it,” Obi-wan replied. “I never did.”

Had Anakin been more awake he might have noticed how it seemed like Obi-wan implied he’d been through it before. A red flag would have gone up. He might have questioned his friend, prepared to fight back the denials.

And yet Anakin’s sleepless mind was simply too tired and weary to pick up such details. 

“Do you know when it’ll end?”

“No.”

The war could last ten more days. The war could last ten more years. Neither knew.

They both gave a weary sigh. 

Unable to force themselves asleep, all the duo could do was stare out the window. Just stare and think about all those brave, brilliant souls who had become stardust today.

And those who would tomorrow.


End file.
